Perceived benefits, aesthetic preferences and willingness to pay for visiting urban parks: A case study in Kolkata, India

Abstract

Urban parks provide multi-purpose benefits, including environmental, social, recreational, and health benefits to the city dwellers. Recently much research has argued that a better understanding of citizen preferences should be effective in managing urban green space. The aim of this study to understand the purpose, motives as well as attitude towards urban parks in different socio-demographic assortments, variety of preferences, and their willingness to pay (WTP). A questionnaire-based survey has been conducted with 6 selected urban parks in Kolkata city, the second-largest city of India. A 5-point Likert scale was used to measures of preference of respondents. Cronbach's alpha is used to measure the internal consistency of variables and a non-parametric Spearman test was performed to identify potential correlations between the variables. The study has discovered an interesting public perception about the use of urban parks which depend on a mix of aesthetic preferences and environmental benefits. The result shows that various socio-demographic factors, particularly gender, age groups, education level, and economic status are influenced to visit parks. It also shows that the majority of the respondents were visits parks for acquiring ‘social benefits’ (39.9%) and ‘psychological and health benefits’ (71.7%). Furthermore, strong correlations were found between park suitability, accessibility, and aesthetic preferences with WTP. Overall, this study will be helpful in the assessment of park users' motives and their attitudes which is essentially required to manage urban green space in a multi-dimensional construct.